Japan Launches Tax-Free Investment Accounts

Japan’s huge glacier of stationary household wealth may finally be melting, a development that could help local markets and the country’s economic recovery.

After much fanfare, the activation of Nippon Individual Saving Accounts officially kicked off Monday.

Part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic reform plan, the tax-free NISA system is designed to coax Japan’s chronic savers to put money into stocks, bonds, and other assets to spur domestic growth instead of just parking cash in regular bank accounts.

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